Traces the social, political, and cultural development of America's gay and lesbian community, from the sexual experimentation of the Roaring '20s to the scapegoating of homosexuals during the McCarthy era to the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village in 1969-the event many consider the beginning of the modern-day gay rights movement. Poet Audre Lorde, Native American activist Smilie Hillaire, historian and playwright Martin Duberman, gay activist Barbara Gittings, the late poet Alan Ginsberg, and Rev. Grant Gallup are among those interviewed or featured in archival footage.